


With A Bang

by erini



Series: BAD END [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Other, Reader-Insert, SHSL Despair - Freeform, did i lie in the tags??? probably???, not sure how to explain this fic other than being a purely self-indulgent reader insert, ultimate despair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:53:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26727733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erini/pseuds/erini
Summary: This is the way the world ends. Not with a whisper but with a bang.
Series: BAD END [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1987495
Kudos: 7





	With A Bang

**Author's Note:**

> tw: murder, suicide, descriptions of violence  
> slight spoilers for danganronpa zero!

The delicate thrum of the audience could be heard through the thick walls of the theater, like cicadas during the summer. Almost annoying, but not quiet. Well, that was to be expected. People were clamoring to see your movie, a piece of art made by the academy’s Ultimate Film Director.

As if sharing on the excitement, you rode the high of anticipation with them. Yet, unlike the audience, you were eager for _something else_ to happen.

Smiling at the thought of the audience seeing your film, you happily tapped away at your laptop, getting ready to see the reaction of the masses before you. What was going to happen was truly an event worth documenting.

"Ah, there you are, Miss [name]!" It was one of the organizers of the film festival, who was meant to guide you around the area. Though you were a native to Tokyo, you weren't familiar with Roppongi Hills and were gratefully paired with one of the organizers when you came over. 

Swiveling around in your chair, you found the man with a relieved expression on his face.

You had completely forgotten his name, but just thinking of him as "that man" didn't sit well. So, in a completely whimsical fashion, you had dubbed him with a totally cool name instead of whatever unremarkable one he had before. "Kai Sasaki" was his new name written with the kanji character 'to destroy'!

Yup, that was cool.

"It's almost time for your closing speech for Lunar Film Festa, so please hurry," newly named "Kai" informed you. 

"Of course! My bad, I was just writing some ideas down," you lied, though your tone sounded innocent and genuine. Gingerly, you snapped your laptop shut and put away in your bag.

He smiled at that, admiration in his voice as he spoke to you, "So even when you're in the middle of a screening, you still have ideas. As expected of a student from Hope's Peak." You saw the glint of respect in his eyes and you took the moment to savor it. His eyes weren’t going to be like that for long. 

“Kai” smiled at that. "So even when you're in the middle of a screening, you still have ideas. As expected of a student from Hope's Peak,” he said to you in admiration. You saw the glint of respect in his eyes and you took the moment to savor it. His eyes weren’t going to be like that for long. 

You gave a nervous, forced laugh. "Thanks for the compliment, but really…I'm just doing what any other creative would do," you say to him. "Besides, it’s a pleasant distraction from the incident." The sly reference to what was happening outside was enough to drain the color from his face. His face fell, tinted with a nice shade of anxiety. But, what he was feeling just now was a prologue to what he was going to feel later. 

You could barely keep yourself in character, the role of being the innocent high school girl with a creative mind. (It wasn’t that hard for you, to be honest)

"Is everything alright, Miss [name]?"he asked in concern, brows furrowed. After you mentioned the incident, “Kai” saw something, a shadow that clouded over your irises, like a storm cloud just before it broke. Yet, just as fast as he saw it, the darkness in your eyes disappeared as if it were never there at all.

You gave "Kai" a refreshed smile and made a small reminder to work on your acting skills later. "I'm alright. Sorry for bringing up such a touchy subject. This is supposed to be a fun time." You laughed innocently, heading towards the theater like an excited child.

"Anyways, let's not keep the audience waiting."

* * *

Nocturne Theater, the site of the film festival, was packed to brim with actors, directors, and film fans that were lucky enough to buy tickets. Besides being used to view movies, Nocturne Theater was also used for stage-plays and musicals. It was a top-notch facility that fused various mediums of entertainment together. A white vast screen stretched itself over the stage that was built in front of it. In the middle of the auditorium was a sloped stairwell that went upwards to the furthest seats and led to the backdoors. The red plush seats each housed a lucky actor, director, and film-fan, all of whom were chatting eagerly about viewing your film.

From left of backstage, you fiddled with the headset that you were given, you moved the mic closer to your lips as you approached the forefront of the stage. Facing the audience, you gave them a bright and kind smile, eager to show off your entry, "Good evening, everyone! Thank you for coming out today. I know the world has been harsh lately, but that's why we have movies, right?"

The question hung in the air, heavy from the reminder of what the world was becoming.

Just outside the comforting and safe walls of the theater, crime and riots raged around the world. It was slowly becoming apparent that there was no rhyme nor reason to the violence. It was simply violence for violence's sake.

Or, rather for despair's sake.

But, you kept that bit of information to yourself. The audience before you would soon understand it, anyways.

You continue to speak, unbothered by the somber atmosphere. "We want to escape the world, see a new vision that transcends our everyday lives. Transcends reality, even. That's the point of this wonderful festival, after all! We're here to see the beautiful, hopeful artistic visions of aspiring directors and actors," you say to the audience, who was completely captivated by your "heartfelt" speech and gave the people before you a bright grin.

You give them a beautiful smile, disconnecting your dark thoughts from your actions and words.

"I saw so many wonderful films today that I'm a little intimidated even _with_ my Ultimate title," you joked, causing the audience to laugh as well. "...So, it's an honor to stand on the same ground as talented artists and to show their creations. And I was inspired by this year's line-up that I also gave my all when I was making my film." 

You turned towards the large white screen, smiling wide with anticipation.

"Now, please sit back and enjoy this new level of entertainment."

With your back turned from everyone, no one could see that the light leave your eyes like candle flame snuffed out by the wind. There was no hope, ambition, no excitement, no happiness. The thing that made you "you" was no longer there. Just pure and utter despair could be seen.

You quietly left the stage and saw the man that escorted you earlier. "Kai" was looking at the screen, neck arched forwards and eyes trained on the blank white canvas. You tapped him on the shoulders. "Hey, sorry, but I kinda need to use the bathroom," you said to him, nervousness and embarrassment bleeding into your tone. He raised a brow at you.

"Just when your movie is starting?"

"Yeah, I've been holding it since I got here. But, I'll be back right before the end credits! I promise," you assure him with a grin. "Kai" still stared at you quizzically, however he was in no position to argue. After all, directors that were invited to the festival took highest priority. With a nod, you gave a quick thanks before retreating into your room in the backstage.

* * *

Inside your room, you barricaded the door. 

You locked the door immediately, moved the table dresser in front of the knob before plopping down on your chair and turning on your laptop. You opened a program, which connected to the hidden cameras you placed inside the theater ( ~~ _Thank God for Amazon!_ )~~. In a few short moments, you found yourself with a bird's eye view of the entire theater and waited, waited, waited as your film began to show.

The once pure white screen was colored with a deep dark red, making it difficult to discern what exactly was happening. If you looked close enough, you could see the individual body parts of the student council, the arms and legs that penetrated the air stiffly. Rapidly flashing words flitted across the screen, though it had no effect on you as you were viewing the movie second hand. 

You laid your arms on the table, head resting on them as you watched Junko's film from your safe room. Despite how utterly horrible her film was, you were just as entranced as anyone else.

Red wasn't supposed to be that shade. And it was layered so heavily on top of the grainy images, it made you feel sick even if you were viewing it second hand. The action and strange colors all melded together that assaulted your vision, making you feel dizzy and sick. It was like something was trying to crawl out of your stomach and throat with spindly arms, clawing its way to the outside.

The sound wasn't the best quality, either. It was discordant and harsh on the ears, making a strange popping sound go off. The vocals seemed dipped and rose to unnatural pitches that made your head ache. However, there was a certain rhythm to it that you followed, giving the music some semblance to a song. If you heard it from the auditorium, you were sure you fall into some type of trance.

You felt your foot tap against the ground, following the strange and chaotic song.

Through the harsh overlay of foreign colors, you see a large, solid shadow came onto the screen wearing the Hope's Peak uniform, now messy with blood and body tissue. In his hands, you could see the foldable chair in his hands, into the air, before slamming it down on an unfortunate victim. Plastic and flesh clashed, the sickening squish of meat bringing a shiver of excitement down your spine.

Through the ear-grating music and vocals, you couldn't make anything out; but, you had already memorized everything that the student council said. Pleas for their lives, for forgiveness, for freedom, and sometimes _just_ plain screaming. Everything was ingrained deep into your brain, making it impossible to forget even if you wanted to.

 _'Wow, this…this is the movie that Junko made? This is what I helped her with?'_ you thought to yourself, eyes fixated on the moment a red-headed girl repeatedly stabbed her friend in the chest. The tears and despair mixed together into a cocktail of excitement that fluttered in your gut like caged butterflies. _'This is…this…this is…pure gold!'_

Time flew by, minutes easily turning into an hour. Yet, Junko’s movie simply looped back to the beginning and you re-watched it along with the rest of your (once) unwilling audience. 

You ate some chips while a guy was smashed over the head with a bottle.

You cheered when a female student smashed in her boyfriend's head with a shovel.

You laughed as the quiet student council treasurer was impaled with a pole.

You watched in rapt attention as the Ultimate Secretary turned the gun on herself and shot.

It was so heartbreakingly cruel, but it was within that depravity that you found new-found entertainment.

Because no matter how brutal something is, it's hard to turn away, right?

Though your film was originally about an hour long, you let it replay for almost three before you were satisfied. Initially, you were worried that one movie-goer would barge into your room and try to murder you. However, it seemed that your worry was for nothing!

You left your seat, stretching as if satisfied with what you saw.

"Yup, that was the absolute best~!" you said to yourself, refreshed from such horrible entertainment. "As expected of my muse, she really knows how to put on a show."

Slowly, you undid the barricade and left your room to investigate the audience.

* * *

You came back the way you came, seeing your escort in the same spot as you last saw him. The only difference was that his eyes were glued to the screen, which were now rolling credits.

The background was no pitch black with big fat white letters spelling out: **JUNKO ENOSHIMA & THE STUDENT COUNCIL OF HOPE'S PEAK ACADEMY**. It blared out almost offensively in your eyes, a signal of who the true director was of this offensive video.

Ignoring that, your hand gently grabbed "Kai's" shoulder, turning him around so you can have a clear view of his face. As you expected, he looked despair-inducingly horrible. Large tears rolled down his face, leaving trails down his red cheeks and neck. Snot rolled down his nose in disgusting rivers, pooling into his dark shirt that left blotchy spots.

You stared into his eyes and saw nothing.

“Kai’s” eyes were just voids and all you could see in that inky darkness was the deep, dark despair that Junko preached about. There was none of that earlier admiration he held towards you, none of that infectious excitement, not a speck of individuality was left. All you could see was misery, towards himself and others.

Smiling innocently, you asked, "How are you, sir? Did you like the movie?"

"…no."

"Yet, you and everyone else watched it for nearly three hours."

He stayed silent before you asked another question, "By the way, what's your name? I totally forgot."

"Yuki Ueno."

You pouted, deeply disappointed that he had such a common name. No character in your story was going to be named "Yuki Ueno". With your power as the director, this man is now called "Kai Sasaki", no ifs and or but's!

Wallowing in your disappointment, you barely heard him speak, Kai's voice hoarse from the crying. "Is…that hope? Is that ugly, bloody, violent thing…hope? Those kids killed each other for something like that?" he asked, voice cracking under the heavy pressure of misery. The man physically crumpled like a wet paper doll, sobbing into his hands. You smiled ever wider, an unsettling expression that showed too much teeth.

You couldn't be concerned with just one person, so you left backstage and headed to the forefront of the auditorium. After all, _your fans_ were waiting for you.

Stepping onto the stage, you faced the movie-goers and all you could see was a sea of anguished expressions. Your grin became wider, eyes predatory and staring at them like prey.

"Goooooood eeeeeevening, everyone!" you cheerily greeted, saluting them with a mocking playfulness. It was a stark contrast from the miserable atmosphere of the theater, as if you were having a delicious feast on their hopelessness. "By the looks of your faces, I can tell that you all loved it." The people stayed silent, though you could hear some in the back begin crying.

"This is the debut film directed by the Ultimate Despair, the ones that will liberate this world from the disappointment of hope and pain this world in despair!"

You steadily watched as one of the movie-goers, a woman in the second row and four seats away from the right, stopped sobbing and fixed her gaze towards you. Soon, more and more eyes washed over you as if a spotlight shown where you stood.

"Ya know hope is just a pile of disappointment, baiting you to do the dangerous and impossible," you say, spatting out as if the word 'hope' was the worst type of poison. " Aren't you tired of being treated unfairly? You get treated like shit because of your gender, race, sexuality, talent, position, and wealth. Yet, society preaches that you have to hold out hope and that by working hard you can overcome it and achieve your dreams."

“Buuuuuttt, no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you struggle, it won't happen because there's always someone at the top that doesn’t want that to happen. Just like what you saw here, hope is worthless and hypocritical.”

You pointed towards the roof, more for dramatic effect than anything. "However! A wondrous revolution will take place. One that will overturn the oppressive society that we live in. " 

No matter how nobly you preached, you didn't even believe your own words.

Playing the role of an Action Girl trying to rouse the troops was just something you had to do. Inside, you could only laugh at the fools in front of you, stupidly believe in the persona you wrote up just last night. In spite of the heroic character you made for yourself, the darkness in your eyes grew and grew.

"This revolution you will take a part in will demolish those unfair biases. So, be the brave few to release yourselves and your loved ones from hope and just give yourselves over to despair! Only through this deep and dark hopelessness will you finally find the light at the end of the tunnel!"

Slowly, your kind façade, your heroic character slowly faded, showing your true self: no longer the Ultimate Film Director nor longer the reliable sister. Just depravity in human form. Your shone like dull rubies, swirls of despair showing your true character, your speech concluding in a voice that distorted like a beast.

"HahahahahaHAHAHAHA! In order to destroy this pathetic, cruel, boring, worthless world, you have to break free from the chains of hope and give into despair, everyone!"

* * *

The trending hashtag today was the same as yesterday.

_#TheTragedy_

By itself, you would have thought it was some terrible new film advertisement. But, combined with the tags below it, The Tragedy painted itself as something far more sinister.

Below that, there were a few other similar hashtags: #despair, #HPA, #Ultimate Despair, #revolution. On your phone, tablet, laptop, and computer, you created multiple dummy accounts to fan the flames of conflict. It was difficult to manage ten different accounts to perpetuate your true end goal, Junko's end goal. However, it was laughably easy to give people hope, stir the will to fight and lead them to despair.

Manipulating masses of people, guiding them like characters in a story you wrote, was too despairing. So, logically, you drafted 20 more comments, filled with vulgar language and provoking statements.

Your phone rang, caller ID displaying your mother's number. ' _Huh, Mom? She talked to me just this morning. I wonder what happened?_ ' you thought, pressing answer.

"[name]? [name], are you there?!" Her voice was panic-stricken, panting as if she just ran a marathon. It was hard to understand what she was saying, her words garbled together into an incomprehensible string of words. Somehow, it was strange (and somewhat pleasing) to hear such a calm person to be reduced into a panicking mess. You took a moment to savor it before putting on your usual mask.

"M-Mom, calm down! I can't understand what you're saying? Is everything alright?!"

You hear deep and slow breathing from the other end of the line. A few tense seconds of silence before your mother speaks again. Her voice is shaking. "Ye-Yes, everythin—No. Nothing. Is fine," she says to you.

"What are you talking about?!" you asked her, your own worry and concern straining your voice. "Are you okay? And how about Dad?"

She sighed deeply, deep enough that you thought she was right next to you. "In our neighborhood, um…a man…who lives a few houses down from us. I think the neighbors called him Yuki Ueno. He…He murdered his wife, son, and daughter and then called the police. Then, he…" She choked on a sob and you waited for her to continue.

"He killed himself in front of his house."

You took a moment to absorb that information, wondering why that name was familiar. It took a brief moment before it was pieced together and mentally you cheered for the man. ' _Kai Sasaki, damn! I didn’t know you had it in you!_ ' you gleefully thought with a devilish smile.

"W-What?! You've got to be kidding, Mom! W-Why would he do that?! I…I don't understand how this could happen so close to home…" you stifled your own sob, trying to sound as broken up as she did. Even if your thoughts and actions were disconnected, it didn't affect your ability to act in the slightest. You would like to think that nothing can break you out of character unless you wanted to.

"It must be that incident," she said to you over the phone. "The news is calling it 'The Tragedy'. Crime rates are going through the roof, riots are breaking out all over the world…I don't know…Me and your father don’t know what to do. Just nine of my co-workers disappeared and I…!"

"Shhhh, shhhhh," you comforted over the phone, now typing another comment on Twitter account number seven. "It'll be alright. Me and Hikaru are safe in Hope's Peak. They started locking down the school and everything."

Her cries died down to hiccups and she spoke to you with as much relief as she could muster. "R-Right…You're right. Just stay there. Me and your father will be staying with your aunt in Yokohama. She thinks it's best that all of us stick together during this event," she informed you.

You smile on the other side of the line. Someone just posted a video of riot, some donning a helmet of a black and white bear. He slammed an iron pipe down onto an armed police-man, beating him to death. You re-tweet.

"That sounds good. Stay safe."

She sniffles. "You, too. And protect your brother, okay?"

You let your mask fall, a monstrous expression forming on your face. Yet, your voice remains steady.

"I promise."

* * *

_"This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper."_ -T.S. Elliot 

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is connected to my main fic goodbye to all of the future (https://archiveofourown.org/works/26006476/chapters/63230935) and will be avoiding heavy spoilers for the it. I will be twisting canon as you can see. This is mainly just a work I made for fun and an attempt to flesh out the Reader more. 
> 
> tumblr: https://erinin.tumblr.com/


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